I Miss Zones Designed for Flight

In Burning Crusade, hitting 70 meant that you could unlock the ability to fly. It was a super new thing - if I remember correctly, the only flying mounts in 2.0 were the generic gryphons and wind riders - 2.1 brought Netherdrakes and the Flying Machine (and turbo-charged variant) that I still use as my primary mount on my main.

But flight also meant that more of the endgame world content was open to you. The Ogr'illa faction required flight to complete even its unlocking quests. The Netherwing faction similarly required you to fly out to a floating island. And the Tempest Keep dungeons were all up in the air, requiring you to fly to reach them.

Wrath gave players flight at 77, and designed Storm Peaks and Icecrown around the idea that you had to fly - Storm Peaks because it was all precarious mountain terrain and Icecrown because there literally wasn't any safe place to land and set up an outpost (at least until the Ebon Blade took the Shadow Vault.)

Cataclysm was the first and only expansion to let you fly the entire time, and admittedly, it probably suffered for that. Its endgame zones felt disconnected and a bit empty.

Mists restored the BC-era idea of having you unlock flight at the level cap, but then Warlords, Legion, and now BFA have you gaining it only after you've done enough in the world on your main that it's really just for convenience's sake.

Now, I'll be curious to see how things work out in BFA. Mechagon and Nazjatar will both allow flight, but these aren't the true endgame zones - they're more equivalent to the Broken Shore. The real question is whether we'll be able to fly in whatever the equivalent of Argus will be (cough: Ny'alotha.)

I suspect we won't be able to.

Now, admittedly, grounding characters does give the designers a chance to curate the experience more. Take Nazjatar as it currently exists - as you go lower, things get darker and more dangerous. And you have those imposing water walls - the ocean itself - threatening to collapse and drown you at any moment.

And I think it's fine for zones to be designed to be seen from the ground.

But it doesn't mean you can't design zones to be seen from the air.

I don't think this will happen, but supposing we go to Ny'alotha in 8.3, I'd love to have the zone built around the idea that we're flying between the cyclopean structures. Maybe the ground isn't safe because it's swarming with N'raqi. Maybe we have to be very careful when we touch down because there are massive servants of the Old Gods - C'thraaxi or even worse aberrations - that will annihilate anyone in their path.

You could flip the script - it's not that you have to unlock flying there, but that you have to fight hard to have any sort of foothold where you can just set down and regroup.